**Winner of the Lefty Award for Best Humorous Mystery Critics’ Choice Award Winner** The fog isn’t the only thing wreaking havoc at La Jolla’s landmark Hotel California. A prankster has been hiring employees for nonexistent jobs, a decomposing whale ends up beached in front of the hotel and interrupts a grunion run, and a group of swingers has arrived at the property for a love-in. Not for the first time, hotel detective Am Caulfield is overheard saying, “Hotels are like a circus without the tent.” In addition to those headaches, Am has more than a few mysteries on his hands: Which one of the hotel guests murdered the famed paranormal debunker in room 374? What changes does the hotel’s new owner—aka the Fat Innkeeper—have in store? And can Am juggle a new romantic interest and the increasing animosity of the local police while still nabbing a killer? *Revised and updated edition* *Also available in a new paperback edition upon release* **A Q &A with Author Alan Russell** **Q: It has been a long time since the Hotel Detective books were released. What prompted their rerelease?** A: I wrote the books as a young man, and many readers fell in love with the series. For more than twenty years people have been asking me, “When is the next Hotel Detective book coming out?” **Q: And when is the next Hotel Detective book coming out?** A: If this rerelease of the first two books proves popular, my hope would be to release the third book in the series by 2020. **Q: What about this series do readers like?** A: I wrote these books while I was a general manager at a resort hotel in La Jolla. Not coincidentally, the mysteries take place at an oceanfront resort in La Jolla. I think readers love getting an “inn-side” look at the operations of a hotel. **Q: Reviewers have said these are a “departure” from your usual novels.** A: Although I often use humor in my novels, the hotel novels were written with the express purpose of making readers laugh. If you don’t have a sense of humor, you shouldn’t read these books. **Q: Is it difficult writing comedic novels?** A: I would like to think I have a natural bent for doing it. That said, humor is very subjective. Over the years there have been very few mysteries written for laughs. It is a tough nut to crack. **Q: You apparently succeeded, though. These books received starred reviews, and you won the Lefty, a prestigious award given to the best comedic mystery.** A: It’s nice having an outlet for my warped sense of humor. **Q: You are best known for your Gideon and Sirius novels. Are these series in any way similar, and do you think your Gideon and Sirius readers would like these books?** A: Readers who appreciate Gideon’s wisecracks would probably like Am Caulfield, the main character in the Hotel Detective novels. Am’s humor is more situational, but in both men gallows humor runs deep.